TotalEnergies has purchased shares in Simply Blue Energy’s 1GW Aurora floating wind project in the UK Celtic Sea.
The French oil & gas major acquired a shareholding of more than 75% in the project on 16 September, according to a notification on UK registrar Companies House today.
National Grid awarded a grid connection for the project at Alverdiscott on the north Devon coast effective October 2031 earlier this year as first reported in the subscriber-only issue of reNEWS.
At the time, Simply Blue confirmed it was planning to bid the development into the upcoming Crown Estate leasing round and was working to identify a financial partner.
TotalEnergies already holds an 80% stake in the Erebus offshore wind farm via its joint venture with Simply Blue, dubbed Blue Gem Wind.
Blue Gem Wind also holds 300MW Valorous, an early-commercial project the partners are aiming to build in the Celtic Sea.
The Crown Estate is planning to hold a 4GW leasing round for floating wind projects in the Celtic Sea next year.
Simply Blue declined to comment. TotalEnergies did not respond to a request for comment.